Search form

Blogs

This year’s saga of state Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) bills is nearing the end, but has not come to a complete stop, yet. We continue to monitor RFRA bills in North Carolina and Michigan. Meanwhile, many other bills are moving through state legislatures and have been introduced in Congress that would allow religious beliefs to justify discrimination in adoption placements by state-funded, private adoption agencies. Read more

“Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve” has become a cliché, but opposition to marriage equality remains rooted in certain religious beliefs. The same-sex marriage bans of four states will be considered next week by the Supreme Court in Obergefell v. Hodges. Proponents of these marriage bans framed their arguments in religious terms; legislators even quoted scripture and proclaimed that the ban was necessary “for the stability of society and for the greater glory of God.” Read more

Charges against a Chicago teenager accused of plotting to join ISIS should be dismissed, his lawyer argued, because the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) allows him to act upon his religious beliefs – even if they’re a potential threat to the United States. Read more

It seems “Bible Man,” an individual who proselytizes to public school students, recently discovered that the U.S. Constitution is his kryptonite now that some Tennessee schools have halted his overtly religious programs. Read more

When we last left David Barton, the Religious Right’s favorite pseudo-historian and “Christian nation” advocate , he was under fire for claiming that he had played on a record-setting basketball team at Oral Roberts University (ORU) in the mid- 1970s. Read more

Citing fear of Shariah, or Islamic law, Idaho legislators rejected a bill that would bring the state’s child support program in line with federal regulations. Their act may cost the state millions. Read more

It seems Louisiana lawmakers didn’t learn from the recent backlash caused by “religious freedom” bills in Indiana and Arkansas, so Pelican State politicians are mulling legislation that could allow for discrimination against LGBT persons under the guise of “religious liberty.” Read more

Georgia’s broad “conscience clauses” are under renewed scrutiny due to reports that a pharmacist refused to fill a prescription for a drug some abortion opponents don’t like. According to Brittany Cartrett, a Walmart pharmacy blocked her prescription for Misoprostol. Cartrett needed the drug to manage a natural miscarriage, but it is also often prescribed to induce medical abortions. Read more

The last time I flew on a commercial plane, a toddler threw an iPhone at me.

The girl looked to be about a year and half old, and her mother was very apologetic. I smiled as I handed the phone back – it had bounced off my shoulder – and joked, “Your daughter has a good arm. Maybe she’ll play baseball someday.” Read more